photographic highlights 2023–24: part 1

I shall be going back to the UK for the summer next week, and as usual, I’ve put together a collection of what I consider to be the most interesting photos that I’ve taken during the past seven months in Hong Kong. In fact, I’ve taken just one-third of the number of photos that I’ve taken in previous years, although this has only slightly affected the number of photos that I consider ‘interesting’.

Paula and I have started going to Fairwood in the Queen’s Hill Public Housing Estate for breakfast, and on the way there, I couldn’t help but notice these flowers next to Lung Shan Road, the only way into the estate for motor vehicles:

Although they probably weren’t the same ones, I kept noticing flowers here for several months!

We had also been in the habit of going to Sun Ming Yuen in Green Code Plaza for yam char (‘drink tea’), but this restaurant closed recently, and we still haven’t found a suitable substitute. The next photo is of a wool shop in this mall that I noticed after leaving the restaurant. Although knitting is quite popular in Hong Kong, I can’t explain why this window is full of quirky figures, few if any of which appear to have been knitted:

I attend the Fanling Clinic regularly, and whenever I do so, I always walk through Fan Leng Lau. The next two photos are of the crowd of ceramic figurines next to the village shrine

I took this photo (and several others) of our local goat herd back in October on the track running alongside our local river (Ng Tung River) that we now have to follow because of construction on the opposite bank:

I haven’t seen them since.

I captured this photo of a Chinese military helicopter in flight from our balcony:

One day, I was sitting in our living room when I suddenly realized that we have a great view:

There used to be a large tree covered in epiphytes that blocked the view, but it was destroyed in a typhoon a couple of years ago (while we were in the UK).

We often see large numbers of pigeons perched on the upstream railing of the first footbridge across the Ng Tung River downstream from where we live:

We don’t see them anywhere else.

There has been a running track in San Wai Barracks since British times, but the Tartan Track you can see here is a recent construction. When it was inaugurated, I thought that there would be a full athletics competition, but there were just a few 4×400-metre relay races:

Nevertheless, the entire garrison appears to have turned out to watch.

There is a café in Queen’s Hill called Lime Fish. We haven’t tried it yet, but I do like the neon logo:

Paula’s brother and his wife, who live in Canada, were visiting Hong Kong in November, and on one occasion we had dinner together. I’d never had this dish before, which is why I photographed it. All I remember is that it was delicious:

I don’t often go to Hong Kong island, but I had a medical appointment there, and I spotted this mural in a side street in Central:

I don’t know what it’s intended to represent.

Sunset on the Ng Tung River:

This is a view of Queen’s Hill estate from Po Kak Tsai. In the foreground is ‘the swamp’, and there is a good path running next to the trees, which we follow after breakfast in a roundabout way home:

Another sunset picture. This one was taken from our roof:

There is a line of bauhinia trees in the centre of our village (bauhinia is Hong Kong’s ‘national’ flower):

The flowers persisted for months.

I’ve probably photographed this artificial island several times. It’s located just south of Taipo, and we pass it when cycling south to Shatin:

It’s almost always covered in egrets.

This is this year’s disappearing perspective photo, a view of Taipo Waterfront Park:

The mountain in the distance is Ma On Shan, after which the new town that you can see at its foot was named (I can remember when the land occupied by the town was just wilderness). When cycling down south, we invariably detour to follow a very pleasant cycle track that runs through this park.

I included a photo of this creature in my account of the Tang clan festivities in December, but I felt it was so intriguing that I’ve included another photo here:

I included San Uk Sitting-Out Area in my recent account of such facilities in my neighbourhood, but this is what it looked like in December, when all the trees here shedded their leaves in a very short period:

Morning glory is a very common plant here, and I particularly like this one, which is growing over a temporary fence that demarcates what is currently the only public footpath alongside our local river:

Continued in Part 2…